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The 5:2 Diet

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I have read Michael Moseley's book and used some of his recipes although not tried the complete diet. They do make you feel quite full. I was told I was coming close to "high risk" in April and I have to have another test in July/August time. I have cut my carb load following the excellent advice on here. Thank goodness for this Forum. I read in Michael's book that you should not go that low if you have a BMI of 21 or under. Mine is about 21.3 ish I think. I started off at 5 foot 6 in. and 9 stone 6 but, when I cut the carbs, I am now down to about 8 st 7 ish. I still have fat around my stomach area though which points to insulin resistance I believe. I suspect that, even I have managed to bring the blood sugars down and I won't know until I have had the next test, I am stuck with being careful for life now. I have always carried "belly fat" but it has not caused any problems until now. God knows what I am going to do if it is worse when I have the next test.
 
TheClockworkDodo said:
Has anyone tried the 5:2 diet, or anything similar involving regular fasting or calorie restriction, not so much for weight loss as for improved general health?

We have been wondering whether this would be a good thing for R, as, while his BMI is OK, it's only just OK, and he's gradually acquiring a paunch. He has a family history of stroke, heart disease, high blood pressure, and ME, so anything which would prevent his developing any of these would be a good idea (and the original point of the 5:2 diet, for anyone who missed the programme about it, is not that it reduces weight but that it reduces body fat and so reduces the risk of a number of major diseases).

However, R is hypoglycaemic, so low blood sugar is dangerous for him, as it would be for someone insulin-dependant. Fasting altogether would be difficult if not impossible for him, and we're not sure how he'd cope with calorie restriction. I'd be happy to do it with him, to support him, if we can find some way of making it work for people who are likely to hypo at any given moment (and make sure I don't lose weight with it, because I can't afford to!).

Has anyone tried it, especially anyone who's on insulin? How did you get on with it?

(Posting this here rather than on weight loss board because I'm thinking in terms of healthy diet generally rather than losing weight).
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Good luck with this 🙂
 
Thanks, Hobie 🙂

And good luck to you too, Maz - hope the next test shows your BGL has gone down.

R is doing fine and is losing weight 🙂 - hopefully also fat, but we haven't checked that again yet.

I seem to be completely unable to cut calories or carbs - I tried around 1200 calories on Friday, twice the amount of the previous week, and had the double whammy of hypo in the night and hypo first thing Saturday morning once again :( But as I said, I don't want to lose any weight, and my body fat level is acceptable, so it's not a big problem, so long as R will keep going without me joining in.
 
Just a quick update - we re-did R's weight and body fat calculations today. He has lost 11 lb in weight, and his BMI has gone from 24.55 to 23.53. More importantly, his body fat has gone from about 27 to about 24, so from obese body fat levels to acceptable ones 🙂

He hasn't done a fast day every week (he gave it a miss on holiday, or if we were going out) but he has done one most weeks, he's made no changes to the exercise he does, and the only other change he's made to his diet is that he's now eating a tomato every day with his lunch instead of a cake.

So although I had to give up on it, it does seem to be very successful for him 🙂
 
Brilliant stuff, I actually think it has another potentially unintended but welcome impact from what I've seen. We tend to get into routines with food (especially lunches) and just eat what we always eat. The fasting side of things helps break eating habits too which can be very useful, more mindful eating I suppose, although I was trying not to use that phrase since it's so fashionable 🙂.
 
I think it's the Lantus that would make fasting difficult. I am convinced that my basal insulin requirement is decreased for roughly 24 hours following a day when I eat under 100g carbs. I'm on a pump so I can easily adjust my basal insulin but with Lantus I believe it takes days for any adjustment to reach its full effect.
 
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